Thursday, January 9, 2014

¿Dónde están las turbas?

Socialist Party (PS) Sen. Isabel Allende .... represents the region where the controversial mine from the world’s largest gold producer is under legal attack for failing to meet its environmental obligations.

A Chilean court suspended operations at Barrick Gold’s Pascua-Lama mine in early April, responding to the indigenous Diaguita community’s allegations that the company is endangering the fragile ecosystem they share on the Argentine border.

Not entirely. I think that, until this point, the company has been incapable of complying with environmental standards and hasn’t met its agreements. It has accumulated sanctions, including various fines relating to work conditions.

It’s true that I also have to acknowledge the concerns the workers have about the future of their jobs. We are talking about more than 4,000 workers, but I think that [the current situation] is an enormous act of negligence by this company.